Arizona Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal injury law is based on fairness. When someone else’s actions injure you, it would be unfair for you to bear the costs of those injuries. Fortunately, Arizona law gives you a path to recovering compensation for the losses you suffer after getting hurt by someone else’s actions.

This compensation could make a significant difference in your quality of life. You may need medical treatment to address disabling symptoms, but this treatment may be out of reach financially when the nature of your injuries prevents you from working.

In many cases, these problems amplify each other, with your injuries straining your finances and your income depending on recovering your health.

When pursuing a claim, injured victims often benefit from contacting Gerber Injury Law to discuss their claims with our experienced personal injury attorney. Arizona has many unique legal situations that can arise, and as a local law firm, we can help you address them.

We understand the challenges you face when you suffer an injury in Arizona and remain committed to the highest level of client service. Contact us for a free consultation to discuss your injuries and your right to pursue injury compensation under Arizona law.

Why Choose Gerber Injury Law for Your Injury Claim?

Gerber Injury Law is a family-run law firm that treats you like family. We are committed to treating you with compassion and keeping you fully informed about the status of your case.

Two of the most important characteristics to look for in an Arizona personal injury lawyer include knowledge and experience.

The firm’s founding attorney has over 25 years of legal experience, including over 19 years of handling personal injury cases. Most of his career has been spent in the courtroom, first as a criminal prosecutor and then as a personal injury litigator.

Equally importantly, Gerber Injury Law was founded in 2009. Our legal staff has over a decade of knowledge relating to personal injury claims in Arizona, from the state’s statutes to local court rules and procedures.

We work hard to earn the trust and respect of our clients. Contact Gerber Injury Law to learn how we can help you pursue fair compensation for the effects of your injuries.

How Will an Attorney Help an Arizona Personal Injury Claim?

A personal injury attorney’s work begins before filing any claims or lawsuits. Our lawyer meets with you to hear your story and explain your legal options.

At this point, we are acting as objective legal advisors, giving you open and honest feedback so you can make an informed decision about how to proceed with your claim.

If you choose to seek injury compensation, we begin gathering evidence and preparing your claim. We prepare every case as if it will reach trial even though most cases settle. We believe in working hard to assemble the strongest case possible based on the events that injured you.

Once we put your case together, we become advocates for you. Multi-billion dollar insurance companies have nearly unlimited resources to fight your claim. We stand up for you against the might of these powerful corporations. This is the value of having a personal injury lawyer Arizona residents know and trust.

The typical course of an injury case includes several steps.

Assessing the Strength of Your Case

One of the first steps a lawyer will take during a free consultation is to evaluate the strength of your case. Not all injuries will support a personal injury claim. Instead, you must show that someone caused your injury by their culpable actions.

Negligence sits at the heart of most injury claims. Negligence happens when you get injured by someone who owes you a duty of care but fails to satisfy it. Put another way — negligence means someone was supposed to be careful and injured you when they acted carelessly instead.

Negligence often applies to car accidents, slip and fall accidents, and medical practice cases. To win these cases, we must prove the following:

• A person or business owed you a duty of care
• They breached that duty of care by failing to exercise reasonable care
• You suffered losses
• The breach caused your losses

For example, suppose that you cross the street in a crosswalk. A driver runs into you while talking on their cell phone. We would argue that the driver owed you a duty of care to drive safely. They breached that duty by driving while distracted, thereby exposing you to an unreasonable risk of injury or death.

If you were injured, you suffered losses such as medical expenses and lost wages. We prove causation by showing the driver’s distracted driving logically and naturally led to the collision that injured you. We must also show an accident was a foreseeable consequence of the distraction.

Developing Alternate Theories of Liability

Negligence will not apply to every case. We use our knowledge of injury law to identify alternate theories of liability to ensure you pursue every possible source of injury compensation. Two additional legal theories we use to establish liability include intentional harm and strict liability.

Intentional torts like battery and assault require us to prove the at-fault party’s intent. Specifically, we must show that the other party intended to make harmful contact with you. Thus, we might rely on an intentional tort theory when a driver deliberately pushes your car out of the way while escaping the police.

Similarly, a nursing home resident might have a claim for intentional harm against an abusive staff member.

Strict liability applies to certain inherently dangerous activities. Under this doctrine, we can prove liability without evidence of the other party’s knowledge or intent. The two most common types of strict liability claims in Arizona are dog bite cases and product liability cases.

This means Arizona law imposes strict liability on dog owners for injuries from unprovoked dog attacks. Under strict liability principles, we can establish liability regardless of the dog’s history or whether the owner made reasonable efforts to restrain it.

Likewise, manufacturers bear strict liability for injuries caused by defective products. We have three options for proving that a product was defective.

Products with design defects are inherently dangerous because users cannot use them safely under any circumstances.

Manufacturing defects arise at the factory when a product does not meet specifications. When a product’s instructions fail to explain how to use the product safely or avoid dangerous misuse, it’s a warning defect.

Determining the Value of Your Claim

You must understand the value of your claim early in your case. You must set your expectations for the compensation you can recover so you know whether a claim will be worthwhile. Also, knowing the value of your case will help you decide when you have received a fair settlement offer.

You can pursue compensation for your economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses cover all the monetary costs associated with your injuries, including the following:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Past wage losses from missing work
• Diminishment in future earning capacity due to disabilities
• Out-of-pocket expenses related to your injuries and their effects

We can assess your economic losses using financial records such as receipts, medical bills, and wage statements. You simply add up all the costs caused by your injuries to determine your economic losses.

Non-economic losses include all the intangible ways your injuries diminish your quality of life. Examples of non-economic losses include the following:

• Pain
• Mental suffering
• Disability
• Dismemberment
• Disfigurement

These losses are separate from your economic losses. For example, you may require physical therapy and medication to deal with the pain from your injuries. The costs associated with them will qualify as economic losses.

Your lost sleep, anxieties, and inability to perform necessary tasks will qualify as non-economic losses.

Non-economic losses are difficult to predict because they do not come with a price tag. We use our experience to estimate your non-economic losses based on the severity of your injuries. More severe injuries, particularly permanent injuries, will justify greater non-economic damages than minor or temporary injuries.

Filing Your Insurance Claim

Almost all injury cases start with an insurance claim. Liability insurers pay third-party victims for injuries resulting from their policyholders’ actions.

Accident victims can file claims against the at-fault party’s insurance policies. When they prove liability, the insurer has a legal obligation to pay any covered losses up to the policy limits.

Some forms of liability insurance that might apply to a personal injury case include the following:

• Auto insurance can cover car, pedestrian, and bicycle accidents
• Homeowner’s insurance can cover dog bites and premises liability claims
• Business property insurance can cover slip and fall accidents
• Professional liability insurance can cover medical malpractice

To recover compensation from an insurer, we must file a claim that describes what happened and why the policyholder is at fault. The claim also includes proof of your losses, such as medical records and bills. We gather evidence to prove liability and losses, including accident reports, witness statements, and financial records.

The insurance company assigns your claim to an adjuster. The adjuster’s job is to investigate your claim to determine whether it falls within the scope of the policy. The adjuster can deny the claim for many reasons, including:

• The other party did not cause your injuries
• The insured did not act negligently
• Your injuries were pre-existing conditions
• The treatment you received was not reasonable and necessary

We respond to claim denials with evidence and legal arguments to persuade the adjuster that the denial was wrong.

When an adjuster accepts a claim, they will make a settlement offer. The initial offer will probably be unreasonably low. It might not even cover all the expenses described in your claim. Your Arizona car accident lawyer from Gerber Injury Law will work to negotiate a fair settlement.

Litigating Your Case

Many personal injury claims get settled without filing a lawsuit. But sometimes, an adjuster will persist in an incorrect claim denial or refuse to negotiate a fair settlement. In these cases, you and your lawyer might decide to file a lawsuit.

Often, the lawsuit will give your lawyer enough leverage to settle your case before trial.

We start lawsuits by writing and filing a complaint that describes what happened and the compensation you are seeking. After the other party responds, the lawsuit enters the discovery phase. During discovery, we exchange documents and other evidence with the defendant’s lawyer. This process gives us time to prepare for the other side’s defenses.

We will file pre-trial motions and respond to those filed by the other party. These motions help the court decide what we can use at trial. Throughout the litigation, we will keep the lines of communication open for settlement discussions with the insurer and its lawyers.

If the case does not settle before trial, we will present your case. As the plaintiff, you get to decide whether to have a jury trial or a bench trial. At trial, we will present your evidence and argue for a full and just damage award. If the trial verdict goes your way, it will include an award amount.

Common Personal Injury Claims We Handle

Gerber Injury Law handles many types of personal injury claims.

Car Accidents

Car accidents are a leading cause of accidental injuries and deaths in Arizona, causing over 16,650 fatal and non-fatal injuries in 2022. Road and weather conditions play a role in crashes. But most crashes involve dangerous driving behaviors like:

• Distracted driving
• Speeding
• Following too closely
• Failing to yield the right-of-way

We can pursue claims for car crash injuries by showing that the at-fault driver failed to drive carefully. We often prove this by showing the driver violated traffic laws or did something legal but unreasonably dangerous.

Commercial Truck Accidents

Commercial trucks can cause catastrophic or fatal injuries when they hit smaller passenger vehicles.

Trucking companies may bear liability for these crashes under several scenarios. They may be vicariously liable for a truck driver’s negligence. Thus, a trucking company may be liable when its employee crashes a truck while texting.

Trucking companies might also bear the liability for crashes resulting from their negligence in:

• Loading or securing cargo
• Maintaining or repairing vehicles and trailers
• Hiring or retaining drivers
• Conducting drug and alcohol tests

Fortunately, trucking companies must comply with federal laws requiring at least $750,000 in insurance policies and surety bonds. This number can go as high as $5 million if a company carries hazardous substances.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Accidents

Pedestrian and bicycle crashes can cause severe injuries to the unprotected bodies of victims. Brain, spinal cord, and limb injuries can permanently disable people hit by cars. Drivers bear the liability for these injuries when these crashes result from their negligence, such as failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.

Dog Bites

Arizona law imposes strict liability on dog owners for the losses that result from unprovoked dog bites. We can pursue compensation for these injuries even if the dog has no bite history and the owner attempted to restrain it.

Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcycle accidents can cause catastrophic injuries to the head, neck, and limbs, even when operators and passengers wear helmets. We can pursue claims for crashes when drivers fail to exercise reasonable care. For example, many drivers cause crashes when they fail to spot motorcycles in plain view.

Construction and Workplace Accidents

Workers’ compensation insurance covers most employees in Arizona. Workers’ comp blocks many types of lawsuits against employers for work-related injuries. However, workers may still have third-party claims against parties other than their employers who contributed to their injuries.

We can pursue third-party claims against drivers, manufacturers of defective equipment, and other liable parties.

Premises Liability

Property owners, managers, and tenants in Arizona must keep their premises reasonably safe for guests. When they negligently fail to find and fix hazardous conditions, they bear liability for any resulting injuries.

Product Liability

Manufacturers are strictly liable for injuries caused by defective products. We can assert claims against these businesses even if they did not intend or know about the defect.

Medical Malpractice

Healthcare providers must meet a professional standard of care when treating patients. Doctors, dentists, hospitals, and other providers bear the liability for medical errors that are unreasonable under the circumstances. In other words, not every adverse outcome constitutes medical malpractice. Instead, we must show that the error occurred due to negligence or other wrongful conduct.

Nursing Home Abuse

Nursing home abuse and neglect target the most vulnerable. When you or a loved one suffers abuse in a residential facility, we can pursue claims for negligent or intentional harm against the abusers. We may also assert claims against the facility for negligent hiring and supervision of the abusive worker.

Wrongful Death

Arizona law allows the spouse, children, parents, or personal representative of a deceased victim to file a wrongful death claim against any business or person who caused the death.

They can seek compensation for any losses they suffered as a result. Equally importantly, the family members can seek justice for their loved ones.

Call an Arizona Personal Injury Attorney Today

Car accident injuries can threaten both your physical health and financial well-being. Gerber Injury Law understands the difficulties you face and works hard to improve your situation. We have a 99% success rate and have recovered over $55 million in injury compensation for our clients.

Contact us to schedule a free consultation to discuss your Arizona accident and how we can help you pursue compensation for your injuries.